Whistleblower Single Issue - April 2012

THE COLLEGE ILLUSION: Why chasing a degree so often ends in financial and educational chaos

"Get a college education."

That piece of advice has long been one of the most universal and unquestioned beliefs of the Western world.

College, we're constantly reminded, is not just the key to a good career and financial security; it's a virtual baptism into a greater and more fulfilling life.

Yet, as dramatically documented in April's Whistleblower magazine, "THE COLLEGE ILLUSION," this almost sacrosanct belief in college is currently disintegrating before our eyes.

Even as Barack Obama attempts to buy off the youth vote by promising ever more government student loans and promoting college as a virtual civil right for the masses, a new reality is taking hold: For many, college is not the smartest thing to pursue after high school.

Obviously, to go into medicine, law, engineering or similar fields requiring standardized formal training and professional certification, higher education is still a must. But the idea, unquestioned for generations, that college is the ideal destination for all high-school graduates – that even those who have no particular interests or career focus should just go to college anyway, take courses, meet people, enjoy the wild social life and try to obtain some sort of four-year degree while racking up crushing debt – is increasingly being questioned … and rejected.

There are many reasons, the most publicized of which is cost: Like everything else subsidized by government, today's price tag on a four-year degree from a prestigious school is stratospheric, meaning most graduates either come from wealthy families, win major scholarships or – much more often – incur huge debts requiring decades to pay back. Daily news stories spotlight America's hundreds of thousands of unemployed or underemployed college grads with gigantic debt burdens.

Then there is the jarring reality that the vast majority of professors lean left – many far left. This is no trivial matter, and it predictably results in the ongoing indoctrination – some call it brainwashing – of millions of students every year. Indeed, the leftwing, secular-socialist orientation of the modern university has played a gigantic role in the steady transformation of the American mind.

"When young people's values and common sense are hammered and manipulated for four or more years by authority figures bent on propagating a leftist worldview," says Whistleblower editor David Kupelian, "many students emerge from college profoundly changed – for the worse."

Alongside the far-left politics is an almost surreal level of in-your-face sexual anarchy – often openly and officially celebrated on campus. And the flipside of such a hypersexualized and "tolerant" campus culture is an extreme intolerance toward traditional Judeo-Christian moral and religious values and the students that hold them.

As "THE COLLEGE ILLUSION" documents, the university experience has now racked up so many negatives – while increasingly failing to deliver on the vaunted promise of career and financial security – that young people in the age of the Internet and gee-whiz communications are exploring other ways to obtain the "higher education" they desire.

Highlights of "THE COLLEGE ILLUSION" include:

"The very high cost of college" by Joseph Farah

"The college illusion" by David Kupelian

"The college scam" by John Stossel, urging readers to rethink the notion that an expensive degree is necessary for success

"College students given $100,000 to drop out!" by Art Moore, on why a top tech entrepreneur is paying youngsters to try an alternate route to success

"Higher education the next bubble to burst?" on what's likely to happen to the astronomical cost of college

"The dangers of 'higher education'" by Thomas Sowell, on the negative and surprising consequences of the growth of "soft" curricula

"Colleges as 'boot camps' for gay activists" by Bob Unruh, showing how "Queer Studies" amounts to a full-fledged LGBT indoctrination program

"Major study proves the left owns America's colleges" by David Horowitz and Eli Lehrer, demonstrating why "Most students graduate without ever taking a class taught by a professor with a conservative viewpoint"

"Sex in the classroom" by Ben Shapiro, a shocking, eye-opening firsthand account of wanton sexual anarchy on the modern college campus, where the prevailing attitude is: "Homosexuality is perfectly normal. Pedophilia is acceptable. Bestiality is fine."

"Women prostituting themselves to pay for school" – although they prefer to call it "seeking an arrangement" between "sugar babies" (students in need of financial support) and "sugar daddies" (older men who provide financial support in exchange for companionship and sex)

"Student loans now surpass credit card debt" – incredible, but true

"College freshmen undergo Maoist brainwashing" by David Kupelian, on new students being compelled to endure mandatory "diversity seminars" strikingly similar to personality modification techniques perfected by Chairman Mao Zedong in communist China

"Is college really worth it?" by Phyllis Schlafly, on why government should get out of higher education to bring down costs

"Surprise! Psychologist exposes bias in the academy" by Art Moore, on the "statistically impossible" lack of true diversity in America's universities

"College: A dangerous place for men" by Phyllis Schlafly, exposing an Obama policy on sex accusations that deems males guilty until proven innocent

"Far too many people are going to college" by Walter Williams, on how "higher ed" has been dumbed down to keep students coming and the money flowing

"God's new Harvard" by Alyssa Farah, on Patrick Henry College, a school America's founders would have been proud of

"How Hillsdale thrives with no government aid"

"A college degree? Not for my kid" by Patrice Lewis, on why, for many, "higher education" no longer has the value it once did

… and much more!

"New options abound," says Kupelian. "The Internet – as revolutionary today as the Gutenberg printing press was five centuries ago – offers endless opportunities for learning, including taking college courses from home. Trade schools, distance learning, community college, going into business, apprenticeships, internships and a hundred other opportunities beckon."

He adds: "All that is necessary is to break free of the paralyzing fear that not graduating from college will result in failure. It's not true."